South Korea’s Choi Min-jeong won the 1,500 meter short track speed skating at the Asian Winter Games on Monday, establishing the favorite from next year’s Olympics host as an early medal contender.

Choi won the event with a time of 2 minutes, 21.46 seconds to edge fellow-South Korean Shim Suk-hee by .153 seconds. Guo Yihan of China was third in 2:30.017.

“I wasn’t that focused on us coming first and second and more concerned about the skaters from the other countries,” Choi, a seven-time world champion, said after the race. “But it was great that we could get this result together.”